Elon Musk has taken aim at Green Day after the punk rock band trashed former President Donald Trump's Make America Great Again movement in one of its songs.
Green Day sparked controversy Sunday during a performance at Dick Clark's New Year's Rockin' Eve, when lead singer Billie Joe Armstrong altered a line of the band's single "American Idiot" from "I'm not a part of a redneck agenda" to instead sing "I'm not a part of the MAGA agenda."
The song was released in 2004 and was originally a statement against former President George W. Bush and the Iraq War.
Taking to X, Musk slammed Green Day for straying from its roots.
"Green Day goes from raging against the machine to milquetoastedly raging for it," Musk wrote on X, adding laughing emojis.
The band also drew backlash from other social media users who shared Musk's sentiment.
"Green Day's shift in tone reflects a loss of their original rebellious spirit, turning into a more mainstream and less impactful version of their former selves," one person wrote on X.
"MAGA doesn't want washed-up soy boy musicians who haven't been relevant since the blackberry was the hot new cellphone," added another commenter.
"Green day are sellouts. They have been for awhile. Who else is sick of old washed up celebrities?" a third wrote.
This is not the first time Green Day has criticized Trump. In 2016, the band coined the "No Trump, no KKK, no fascist USA" slogan at the American Music Awards. Armstrong also previously expressed hostility toward the former president during a private performance in 2018.
"I f****** hate Donald Trump so much," he said, according to Variety. "I used to scream I hated George Bush. This one is a little different. This one is bad, it's like acid gone bad."
In August, the band capitalized on Trump's indictment by launching new merchandise combining his mugshot with imagery from their 1997 "Nimrod" album cover.
Zoe Papadakis ✉
Zoe Papadakis is a Newsmax writer based in South Africa with two decades of experience specializing in media and entertainment. She has been in the news industry as a reporter, writer and editor for newspapers, magazine and websites.
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